


a cup of latte

by haikyuutrash



Series: kuroken cafe AU [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cafe AU, I Tried, M/M, coffee spill accident, kenma is a college student who works part time at a cafe, kuroo is a college student who is a regular at the cafe, my first time writing an AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:27:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23376124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haikyuutrash/pseuds/haikyuutrash
Summary: Who was he kidding? Kenma was in an absolute panic. He’d never been in this situation before and he definitely did not know what to do. This customer he’d just gotten into a mess with was a regular. A regular. If he got mad, what if he stopped coming? Kenma’s manager would be so upset with him. What if Kenma got fired? Then he’d have to leave the cafe and give tuition to some high school kids or walk someone’s dog and clean up after it and no, Kenma did not want that.###Cafe AU:Kenma is a college student working part-time at a cafe and everything goes smoothly until he accidentally spills a cup of coffee on one of the regular customers.
Relationships: Kozume Kenma & Kuroo Tetsurou, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou
Series: kuroken cafe AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1705228
Comments: 6
Kudos: 108





	a cup of latte

**Author's Note:**

> i have no idea why i'm posting two fanfics on one day but yeah...here is an AU inspired by a prompt that someone gave me XD enjoy!! :')

He was here again.

That college student that always came in the afternoon was here, as usual, seated alone at the table near in the corner of the restaurant. Kenma had only started working part-time here a week ago to earn money for his college fees, but he’d already noticed that that student was a regular customer. He was always at the same table, either typing away at his laptop or sipping a cup of coffee while staring out of the window. Nekoma cafe was probably one of his haunts, which meant that Kenma would have to get used to seeing him every weekday. Not that that mattered, though. He was just another regular customer. Nothing special at all.

“Kozume, are you okay?” Kenma turned around at the sound of his manager’s voice. His manager was looking at him with a rather concerned look. “You seem to be slipping into a daze, is something bothering you?”

Kenma shook his head quickly. “Sorry,” he apologised quickly. “I’ll get to taking orders.” His manager gave him a nod of acknowledgement before walking away, leaving Kenma to his work. It wasn’t too busy a day so Kenma didn’t end up in a panicking mess of orders. He wouldn’t admit it, but he did find that he was doing pretty well in this job. At least, he hadn’t messed up any order since he’d been hired and everything went smoothly for him.

The scent of coffee beans lingered in the air as Kenma continued to take orders. Sometimes he would stop for a moment at the counter, watching the barista make the coffee and form interesting patterns on the foam surface. To be honest, he was glad that he’d chosen to work here. As compared to the other jobs he’d been offered such as giving tuition to high school students and walking dogs, this seemed like a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere. The interior design of the cafe was a modern and unique one. It wasn’t fancy like one of those high-class places, but it was simple and it gave off a homely vibe. He wouldn’t say this felt like home, because in the end, it was just his workplace. But at least it felt comfortable to be here.

Passing by the regular student’s table for the fifth time that day, he was a little surprised that the student was still there. If Kenma had remembered correctly, he hadn’t even ordered a drink. He’d just been writing something on a piece of paper, perhaps a report for school. But with him being a regular, it wouldn’t be polite to chase him away, so Kenma could do nothing but let him be. To his surprise, however, he heard the boy speak as he was walking away towards the kitchen. “Excuse me, could I place an order for a latte?”

Kenma turned around and nodded. “Sure.” He turned and walked to the counter, relaying the order to the barista. Directing a quick glance at the regular, Kenma found that he had returned to writing his supposed report. He seemed busier than Kenma was, as much as they were both college students. Maybe it was just that they took different courses. Some part of Kenma wondered if they could possibly be in the same college, though that did seem a bit far-fetched since he’d seen the student’s uniform once and it hadn’t been the same as his.

“Kozume, the latte is ready,” the barista said as he pushed a cup gently towards the side of the counter where Kenma was. With a quiet nod of acknowledgement, Kenma carefully put the cup on a small tray and picked the tray up, heading towards the table.

Kenma walked across the restaurant, careful to avoid the edges of tables and anything that could potentially trip him and cause a scene. He was always this careful and perhaps that was what kept him in the job. “Your order,” he said politely as he bent forward to put the tray on the table while the student was still busy with his work.

Unfortunately for Kenma, not everything could go well forever. The student turned around, a little too suddenly, and that was the moment that everything took a turn downhill. Shocked when the student turned around without warning, Kenma stumbled a little and the cup of coffee slipped down the tilted tray its edge, where it bumped lightly against the slightly raised edge. It might have turned out fine, but Kenma had made a bad decision to try and salvage the cup of coffee and it only made things worse. As he’d reached out to try and catch the handle, he’d knocked into it a little and even though he managed to prevent the cup from falling off the tray, the coffee splashed out like a miniature wave and flooded the surface of the table, soaking onto the student’s paper.

Immediately, Kenma’s face turned red with embarrassment and guilt. “I’m so sorry!” he said, a little awkwardly and very apologetically. “I didn’t mean to do that, I was trying to save the coffee cup and then it---” He cut himself off when he realised he’d gone into a ramble and he most certainly did not want the student to think he was coming up with excuses for his mistake. By then, nearly the whole of the cafe was looking at the scene, including the barista. Thankfully, his manager was still in the kitchen so if he could find some way to settle this, maybe he could---

Who was he kidding? Kenma was in an absolute panic. He’d never been in this situation before and he definitely did _not_ know what to do. This customer he’d just gotten into a mess with was a regular. A _regular_. If he got mad, what if he stopped coming? Kenma’s manager would be so upset with him. What if Kenma got fired? Then he’d have to leave the cafe and give tuition to some high school kids or walk someone’s dog and clean up after it and no, Kenma did _not_ want that.

“I...I’ll get a cloth and clean this up,” he mumbled quickly, his face in a bright red shade. He couldn’t wait to get away as soon as possible so that he could hide in the kitchen, while possibly getting scolded by his manager, and evade all the looks that the rest of the customers were giving him. He couldn’t stand all the attention he was getting now and he couldn’t help but worry that the cafe might get a bad review all because of him. He positioned the cup so that it was balanced on the tray and would not fall off again, before turning to leave...

...only to be interrupted by a voice. “Hey, calm down.” Kenma spun around to look at the customer at the sound of his voice, a look of mild shock on his face. “You don’t have to get so flustered. I’m not scalded or anything.”

“...Oh.” Kenma didn’t know what else to say. At least, the student didn’t seem mad at him. He looked down at the paper that was absorbing more and more coffee every second, feeling slightly ashamed. “The paper...”

“It’s fine, I can always write it again,” the student said, then looked down at the spillage and up at Kenma, who was standing awkwardly by the table. “Could you pass me a few napkins?”

Wanting to try and satisfy the customer as much as possible while he still could, Kenma hurried over to the small booth where the cutlery and napkins were and returned to the table shortly after with a few napkins. He passed half of the stack to the student and started cleaning the table with the others. From the corner of his eye, he noticed that his manager was standing by the counter with the barista, watching the scene but showing no intent of intervening. Well, that was a good sign, wasn’t it? The table was relatively clean after a few minutes and Kenma gathered the napkins they had used, as well as the paper after getting the student’s permission, to dispose of at the closest bin.

When he returned, the student had taken out his handphone and was typing something on it. For a brief moment, Kenma felt his heart stop. Was the customer writing a bad review? He fidgeted nervously, staring down at the table and hoping that the customer was doing anything but that.

“Um...is there any way I can repay you for this?” Kenma asked hesitantly, hoping to somehow keep this job, even if it meant paying a sum of money out of his own pocket as compensation to the customer.

The student didn’t reply as he continued tapping away at his phone. It was a few seconds later that he looked up and held out his phone to Kenma. “Your number, please?”

Kenma had no idea what that had to do with anything, but not wanting to upset the customer, he took the phone and keyed in his mobile number quickly, saving his contact name in the process before handing the phone back to the student, still avoiding eye contact with him.

“Kozume Kenma?” the student read. “That’s a pretty name.” Kenma looked up in surprise and slight embarrassment, thanking him in a quiet mumble. “I’m Kuroo Tetsurou,” the student continued, looking up at Kenma with a smile. “Pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Kenma said, still a little out of sorts after what had happened. The good thing was that it had been pretty much settled, and the bad thing was that he still had no idea how to compensate the customer.

The student glanced quickly at this watch and then out of the window at the darkening sky. Gathering his belongings, he stood up and slung his bag over his shoulders. “I’ll be leaving now, then. I’ll pay for the coffee so don’t worry about that.” He walked past Kenma stopping only for a brief moment. “I’ll text you about the compensation,” he said with a small smirk before heading to the counter to pay his bill, leaving Kenma standing there in confusion and a slight relief.

When the customer had left, Kenma hurried over to where his manager was and apologised profusely, promising that he wouldn’t make the same mistake again. It turned out he may have been worried for nothing, for his manager merely praised him for a good handling of the situation and assured him that there was nothing to worry about. The rest of the day went well and by the time Kenma had helped to pack up the cafe for the night, he’d almost forgotten about the day’s incident.

It was late at night when Kenma heard from the student. More accurately, it was an unknown number that sent him a message, but it was undeniably from the customer who played a huge role in the day’s events.

`unknown: hey  
unknown: it’s tetsurou btw  
unknown: are you working tomorrow? `

Kenma’s finger hovered over the keyboard for a few seconds. The next day was a Friday, so...yeah, he was working. He worked all the weekdays after college. He quickly typed out a reply and sent it before saving the number in his contacts. To his surprise, he received a reply about a minute later, much faster than he’d expected, if he’d expected a reply at all.

`kozume kenma: yeah  
kuroo tetsurou: great!!`

Kenma was about to put his phone away, but he felt a small vibration a few seconds later and he opened his messaging app again.

`kuroo tetsurou: what about the weekends?  
kozume kenma: no  
kozume kenma: those are my days off  
kuroo tetsurou: okay  
kuroo tetsurou: see you tomorrow!!`

With that, Kenma shut off his phone and left it on his bedside table. He stretched his arms above his head with a quiet yawn and tucked himself under his blanket. Tomorrow would be a fresh day. A new day, a new start. Hopefully it’ll go well.

###

Sitting in the lecture hall, Kenma couldn’t seem to focus on the lecturer’s words at all. In his mind, all he could think about was what would happen later that day. He could still remember the accident clearly in his head like a scene out of a movie, and he still had no idea what Tetsurou would want from him as compensation. If he wanted a huge sum of money, Kenma wouldn’t be able to refuse because...well, he’d ruined the student’s paper. But then, he might have to get a better-paid job that he may not like as much as working the cafe, or worse still, he might have to work multiple shifts and be left with less time for his schoolwork.

“Kenma? Are you okay?”

The boy turned at the sound of his friend’s voice. “Yeah,” he said, “just thinking about things.”

“What things?” his friend, Shouyou, asked curiously. “Is it about your job?” Kenma and Shouyou had chosen their jobs together and even though they hadn’t ended up working in the same jobs, they often shared their experiences with one another. Speaking of which, Kenma hadn’t told Shouyou about the incident. It was a little embarrassing to think about it, though, so maybe he’d tell him after it had been resolved.

“Something like that,” Kenma replied with a small shrug. “But nothing out of the ordinary.” It wasn’t exactly a lie --- a small accident in a cafe was something pretty normal. Not _completely_ normal, but ordinary enough to happen once a day in at least one cafe somewhere in the world. Eventually though, he decided he would just let Shouyou a little onto the matter, so he added, “I kinda got into a small accident.”

Shouyou looked at him in surprise. Kenma couldn’t blame him for that, since he’d always been a conscientious person. But people all make mistakes at some point in their life, so one couldn’t say it was impossible for that to happen to Kenma. “Is everything okay with your job, then?” Shouyou asked, clearly concerned.

Kenma smiled slightly. “Fortunately, yes. I’m not fired and I didn’t get a pay cut, so I think that’s good.”

Shouyou grinned. “Yeah! That means it’s pretty much settled!” Kenma didn’t want to ruin his mood by bringing up the compensation so he kept his mouth shut. There was a small chance it wouldn’t be too much of a problem anyway, and Kenma was counting on that chance.

For the rest of the day in college, Kenma couldn’t focus during any lessons. His mind was still stuck on the incident at the cafe, the message he’d gotten from Tetsurou, and the future that was to come in just a few hours. As much as he didn’t want the time to come, however, it came. He couldn’t stop fate from happening, so he’d just have to roll with it. After waving goodbye to Shouyou after school, Kenma headed to Nekoma cafe.

As every other weekday, Kenma arrived punctually at the cafe for work at three in the afternoon. Heading straight for the washroom without even taking a look around the cafe, he quickly changed out of his uniform and into his work attire before walking out to the counter. “Kozume,” the barista called out to Kenma before he could start taking orders. “There’s someone waiting for you.”

Kenma looked to where the barista had nodded his head towards. At the corner of the restaurant, sitting at the same table that he always sat at and typing away at his laptop, was Kuroo Tetsurou. “How long has he been there?” Kenma asked curiously. Part of him wondered if Tetsurou was waiting for him, but he convinced himself that it wasn’t like that. Tetsurou was a regular, after all, so for him to be coming here was nothing out of the ordinary.

“About an hour,” the barista replied. “He requested that we tell you to go over when you report for work.” Then Kenma was _partially_ correct. With a nod and a quiet ‘thank you’, Kenma took his notepad for orders and a pen and walked over to the table where Tetsurou was.

He was visibly nervous as he walked over, as if he were walking into a deadly trap. After the events of the previous day, he still felt a little guilty whenever he looked at Tetsurou. Kenma had noticed that he’d written a few pages of whatever report that was already, only for all of it to be ruined by a clumsy mistake. Kenma would have freaked out if he was in Tetsurou’s place, so he wouldn’t be surprised and he honestly couldn’t blame Tetsurou if he was mad at him.

“Um, hi,” he said awkwardly when he reached the table. “You wanted to talk to me?”

The student took out his earphones and smiled. “Yeah.” He gestured to the chair opposite him. “Take a seat.”

Kenma looked at him sceptically. It was his work hours and he wasn’t completely sure that he should be sitting down and having a conversation with a customer instead of walking around and talking orders. With an apologetic look on his face, he said, “I’m not sure if I should be---”

“Just sit down,” Tetsurou said firmly. “I’ll explain this to your manager if need be.”

Kenma flinched and sat down immediately. Even though the student had definitely not meant that in a negative way, the thought of a customer speaking to his manager made Kenma anxious. “A cup of latte?” Kenma asked, trying to steer them onto the path of a work-related conversation.

“Yes, please,” Tetsurou replied, but he didn’t seem like he was done talking. “So,” he continued, “yesterday you asked if you could repay me in some way, right?”

Kenma nodded. “If you would like monetary compensation or---”

“I’m not done talking,” Tetsurou interrupted, though he didn’t seem annoyed in the slightest. “I’ve thought about it last night and I’ve decided what I want as compensation.”

“What is it?” Kenma asked, hoping that it wouldn’t be too much.

Tetsurou looked at him dead in the eye. “I want you to buy me a cup of latte from Nekoma cafe.”

“...Oh,” Kenma said lightly. Just a cup of latte? That, he could do. It felt like a huge weight on his chest had been lifted. Maybe he’d been thinking too much after all. Glancing at the counter, he said, “I’ll just go get a cup now and pay the---”

“No.”

Kenma turned back to look at Tetsurou in surprise. “...No?” he repeated, taken aback slightly. What did he mean by that? Kenma couldn’t understand what else he would want. A cup of latte from Nekoma cafe...wasn’t that what he asked for?

“I don’t want it like this,” Tetsurou continued. “I want you to buy it for me...as a customer.” Feeling the need to clarify his words, he added, “Both of us, as customers.”

 _Oh._ Kenma blinked and stared at Tetsurou, subconsciously looking at him straight in the eye. “Like a date?”

He saw the faintest blush on the student’s face. “Yeah...like a date.” Tetsurou averted his eyes almost immediately, looking at his laptop screen. He coughed lightly before he spoke again in a slightly quieter voice. “I’ll see you outside the cafe at eight in the morning tomorrow.”

“...Okay,” Kenma said. Then, before Tetsurou could see the red colour taking over his face, he turned and hurried towards the counter to deliver the order.

Kenma spent the rest of the day in the cafe taking orders and serving food and beverage to customers. But unlike every other day, he felt a little different. The scent of coffee beans filled the cafe as per usual, giving it the cosy feeling that had always been there. Except, this time, it was like a little bit more. Even if the cafe had always harboured this homely vibe, this was the first day that Kenma could say for sure that he _loved_ it here.

At the end of the day, he flipped the sign on the door to indicate that the cafe was closed for the day. Several co-workers had asked him what Tetsurou had said, but he’d merely replied that it was nothing. This was his little secret, something he’d be keeping to himself for a while more. As he walked out of the cafe that day, he couldn’t fight back the small smile on his face.

He couldn’t wait to come here again.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading and i hope you enjoyed it!! :D
> 
> ~~on a side note, if you have any ideas, feel free to leave them in the comments UwU~~
> 
> part two: [yeah, like a date](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23477674)!! :D


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